Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-168). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 119 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-119).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of West Florida, 2003. / Title from title page of source document. Includes bibliographical references.

Denna uppsats ämnar till att undersöka hur innovationsbidraget bidrar till innovationsprocessen i svenska små -och medelstora företag och vad ett innovationsbidrag innebär för företagen som mottar dem. Vi har undersökt detta genom att intervjua små -och medelstora företag som har ansökt och fått ett innovationsbidrag beviljat och som de sedermera förbrukat. Resultaten visar att samtliga företag har gynnats av innovationsbidraget men de har gynnats på olika sätt samt att innovationsbidraget har varit ett incitament till att innovera. Resultaten kontrollerades mot en kontrollgrupp bestående av flera företag som ansökt om innovationsbidrag men som fått avslag, detta för att synliggöra konsekvenserna av ett avslag och för att stärka våra resultat. Uppsatsen kom fram till att fem av sju företag som fått avslag på sin innovationsansökan inte går vidare med den tilltänkta innovationen, vilket stärker uppsatsens resultat om att innovationsbidragen bidrar till innovationsprocessen i svenska små -och medelstora företag. Vidare kunde vi även urskilja att vissa företag har anpassat sin innovationsprocess utifrån Vinnovas ansökningskriterier, vilket är negativt utifrån ett innovationsperspektiv. Uppsatsen synliggör hur innovationsbidraget mottas och används i företagen och kommer med viktiga insikter kring hur det kan förbättras framgent. / The purpose of this paper is to examine how innovation vouchers contribute to the innovation process of small and medium sized enterprises (SME) in Sweden and what a voucher actually means for the company that receives them. We have interviewed five SME:s that have applied for an innovation voucher and that got them approved and consumed. The results show that all companies have benefited from the innovation voucher, but in various different ways, and that the innovation voucher has served as an incentive to innovate for the companies. The results were controlled against a control group comprising of companies that have applied for an innovation voucher but did not receive one. The motivation behind this was to highlight the consequences of not getting an innovation voucher and to strengthen our results. The paper shows that five out of seven companies that got a denial on their application of an innovation voucher also stopped that innovation completely, which indicated that innovation vouchers contributes to the innovation process in SME:s in Sweden.Furthermore, we could distinguish that some companies have in fact adapted their innovation process in relation to the criteria stipulated in Vinnova application process, which is negative from an innovation point of view. The paper reveals how the innovation voucher is used within the company and brings forth valuable insights in how it could be improved in the future, going forward.

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Looking back at the past twelve years, many would say that it appears Russia has lost the battle for liberal democratic reform. Among Russia watchers, the following question has been circulated: "Who lost Russia?" This debate has polarized most scholars into one of two camps: those who feel the reforms failed (the critics) and those who feel the reforms were a success (the supporters). This paper will explain why the Russian reforms failed. By filling in the holes left by current research, the author will demonstrate that the truth may lie somewhere in between the two opposing sides.

Groupon is a popular group-buying website where they act as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. The company has grown rapidly and was established in Sweden in the year of 2010. The aim of this study is to investigate if businesses that have been marketed in Stockholm and that have been co-operating with Groupon have been affected in terms of customer loyalty and profitability. Furthermore the study also examines consumer’s opinions, purchase behavior and loyalty against Groupons business partners. The results showed that salon/spa in comparison with other industries received very high added sales (67 %) and had a large number of loyal customers (42 %). For the retail industry, 33 % did not receive additional sales and 67 % have not received customer loyalty. Tourism/travel and other industries believe the campaigns to be very successful and they have received good customer loyalty and sales. The companies who did not consider their campaigns successful had problems with the communication between themselves and Groupon. Finally, 49 % of the consumers turned out to be loyal to the businesses of which they had used daily deals.

Studies focusing on Catholic schools as a proxy for all private education or all private religious education miss important variances within the private school sector, especially at the first grade level. The implication of this is that the vast majority of secondary school choice studies are incomplete; the elementary schooling decision of the parents should be included for all secondary school choice analyses. I augment the scope of a households first grade schooling choice by offering a rich model that includes the public schooling option and the most detailed typology of private schools to date: Catholic, Evangelical or Fundamental Protestant, Mainline Protestant or Other Faith, and Secular. Upon selecting a school type, I evaluate a students performance within this selected sector. While critics argue that selection and omitted variable biases generate test score gains for students rather than private school superiority, I include a childs fall kindergarten reading, math, and general knowledge test scores to control for a students knowledge acquired prior to kindergarten enrollment. I examine whether higher first grade test scores are the result of selection into the private sector or preeminence of the private sector. I find kindergarten test performance, household income, and parental education are significant and positive factors in selecting a school. Additionally, household religiosity and the denominational composition in the households home county are also significant determinants of schooling choice. Results from voucher simulations indicate that an increase in private school attendance does not translate to uniform enrollment increases at all types of private schools. White and Hispanic girls display similar patterns for Catholic and Protestant schools while African-American and white girls select Evangelical schools in analogous trends. Findings suggest that, while a students ability is the driving force behind first grade achievement, the type of school attended in first grade does affect a childs test score for all three tests. First grade private school enrollment makes below average achievers in kindergarten into better students in the first grade. Private schools offer no significant benefit for first grade enrollment to high achieving kindergarten students.

Si la raison d'être des aides sociales, les conditions de leur versement, l'étude des bénéficiaires sont des préoccupations anciennes et constantes de la sociologie politique de l'aide sociale, la question des modalités techniques de versement de ces aides a peu été travaillée. Parmi ces diverses modalités, des outils tels que les chèques sont restés dans l'ombre. Partant de la notion de « voucher » développée aux Etats-Unis dans les années 60 par Milton Friedman et tout particulièrement du « school voucher » ou « chèque éducation », certaines collectivités françaises ont introduit au début des années 1990 ce concept sous la forme de chèques cultures destinés au jeune public en se revendiquant d'idées libérales. Dans les années qui suivirent, on a observé un essaimage important des chèques dans les collectivités françaises sans pour autant que la filiation libérale et anglo-Saxonne ne soit revendiquée. Parallèlement, le chèque en France est arrivé sous une forme encadrée par la loi et principalement destiné au versement d'aides sociales : le Chèque Emploi Service Universel, le Chèque d'Accompagnement Personnalisé, sont désormais bien implantés dans le paysage des interventions sociales françaises. La possibilité ouverte par le législateur de payer certaines aides sociales obligatoire a permis à ces chèques d'entrer en nombre au sein des Conseils Généraux. Après avoir démontré que les chèques sociaux et culturels sont, malgré leurs modalités d'apparition différente, les descendants des « vouchers » friedmaniens, l'enquête de terrain, portant sur 6 dispositifs présents dans 3 collectivités françaises (Conseil Régional Rhône-Alpes, Conseils Généraux de la Drôme et de la Saône et Loire, a principalement consisté en la comparaison entre le discours des acteurs et les arguments traditionnellement employés dans la littérature anglo-Saxonne. Le résultat de l'enquête qualitative menée en utilisant une méthode proche de l'approche phénoménologique et priorisant donc la représentation de l'objet par l'acteur montre en effet que les 6 attributs les plus fréquemment cités dans la littérature reviennent régulièrement dans les propos des acteurs même si ces derniers ne revendiquent qu'à la marge le caractère libéral du chèque. L'enquête a pu démontrer que c'est l'action décisive de médiateurs et la promotion d'un argument absent des analyses anglo-Saxonnes qui a favorisé cette diffusion. Les acteurs citent en effet, dans les avantages du chèque, la notion de visibilité de l'aide et d'outil de communication. Il s'agit en effet de l'argument le plus répandu parmi les entreprises commercialisant ces dispositifs. Nous avons donc étudié à la fois la formation de réseaux formels et informels entre collectivités et l'apport, selon nous décisif, des entreprises ayant pu réorienter leurs « business model » afin de rendre cet outil plus attractif pour des collectivités qui auraient eu plus de difficultés à l'accepter si elles en avaient connu la vraie nature. / In France, more and more social or cultural subsidies, given by local authorities to a targeted group of the population are not distributed directly in cash but under the shape of vouchers. In fact, the first local government to have proceeded like this is the Conseil Régional Rhône-Alpes in 1993 that have launched the “cultural voucher” which was given to the high school students. During the 90s, this way to proceed has become a kind of “fashion” among the French local authorities and nowadays, everything the French Region has at least one subsidy given through vouchers. This kind of tools are very wide-Spread over the world, especially in the US. As a tool of public policy it has been studied first by Milton Friedman and categorized as a pro-Choice and a libertarian tool. The most famous example of “liberal” voucher is the “school voucher” that permits the parents to choose the school of their children (it has been tested in Florida, Milwaukee and New York). The school voucher and a lot of other ones (stamp foods, medical vouchers…) has been implemented all over the world within the framework of programs leaded by institutions as the World Bank of the International Monetary Fund. The arrival of such vouchers in France seems surprising because of the political ideas of the leaders of most of the local government. It seems at least paradoxical to note that social democrat leaders have been the first to use vouchers to pay some social, cultural or other individual subsidies. This thesis tries to answer questions such “how such tools have been to spread through the French regions so easily” and “why haven't the local governments recognize that it was a pro-Choice and liberal tool that they were supposed to fight against?” Vouchers are in fact part of the French culture. France has developed in the 60s a program of luncheon vouchers that everybody knows named “Ticket restaurant”. Four firms composed the national market of the vouchers editors, three of them are the three world leaders of this global market. By using the example of the first cultural voucher created in France in 1993, they have gradually made their Business model evolved to suit these new market opportunities. One of the conclusions of the thesis is that the spreading of the vouchers among French local authorities has not only an ideological cause, but is simply the consequence commercial actions of French vouchers editor companies that have detected a new important market to conquer.

In this study I explore the perception of the influence of several school choice initiatives on secondary music programs in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). In 1990, MPS had fewer than 20 high schools. In 2010, it had close to 60. This increase, coupled with a rapidly expanding voucher program, the influx of charter schools, and a decrease in the number of secondary music programs made MPS an ideal setting for a study of this type. I conducted a two-stage qualitative study, coupling survey data and 19 interviews with MPS students, teachers, and administrators. The survey revealed data regarding the number of secondary music programs in MPS. In addition, the survey data revealed information regarding the type of programs in existence and what music courses were offered at MPS high schools. The interview data helped me to recognize the perceived influence of these government initiatives. Students, teachers, and administrators discussed course offerings, staffing, funding, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), Milwaukee High School Redesign Initiative (MHSRI), and charter schools. Many teacher and student participants had trouble differentiating between the various initiatives but were of the opinion that secondary music education in MPS was declining. Administrators had more informed opinions regarding the initiatives but—even when they were directly responsible for their implementation—showed very little accountability or willingness to acknowledge that some of these programs were not producing desired results. What was not clear was what individual role, if any, these various governmental policies played. There was a great deal of overlap between these initiatives. There was speculation from some that with MPS facing so many other difficulties, music education may have been placed in a role of secondary importance. Because there is little research coupling school choice with secondary music education, these findings have important implications. This study could aid policy makers, administrators, and governmental officials in making informed decisions regarding secondary music programs and school choice. Too many decisions regarding school music programs are made without the aid of research driven data.